The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 716 Escape
In just a quarter of an hour, dozens of the fastest light boats have arrived at the north bank of the Huaihe River.

The Dragon Guard soldiers of the vanguard moved down the half-person-high wooden shields covered with iron sheets from the boat, set up a neat row on the river embankment, and then stood behind the "shield wall" to launch a salvo towards the Jianlu fortifications.

Immediately afterwards, on a sand ship that was docked, ten No. [-] Franco machine guns were dragged out by the gunners and joined the ranks of suppressing salvos.

When the first batch of landing soldiers had all landed, they quickly built a beachhead on the dike and the open space in front of the Jianlu line of defense. Nearly 4000 Franc cannons and more than [-] rifled guns began to pour ammunition towards the opposite side.

At the same time, more than 800 soldiers of the Dragon Guards who were in charge of seizing the wall wore half-body plate armor and carried a ladder to run close to the first earthen wall in front of the ferry.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of ladders climbed onto the four-foot-high wall.

As three red flares lifted into the air, the eight hundred warriors flew up the ladder, with extremely vigorous acrobatics, and climbed up the earth wall after more than a dozen ups and downs.

Then they squatted down skillfully, raised their guns to aim, and fired a round of salvos in all directions.

When the soldiers quickly finished loading, they did not hear the officer's order to shoot again.They couldn't help but looked up suspiciously, only to find that there was no one on the dirt wall!
"There is an ambush!"

Huang Qishou, who was in charge of commanding the storm, shrank in his heart, and immediately shouted, "The fifth battalion is covering, and the others retreat in an orderly manner.

"Send a message, let the battalions below the city pay attention to the two wings, and beware of ambushes!"

"Yes!"

When Liu Chang led the second batch of Ming troops to the north bank of the Huaihe River, he was taken aback for a moment—the long and narrow earth wall in front of him was covered with blue flags of the Ming army, and soldiers from the Dragon Guards escorted groups of prisoners from time to time. go through.

He saw Huang Qishou's command flag from a distance, ran over quickly, and asked suspiciously, "You, are you finished?"

"It's over." Huang Qishou was in a daze, "more than seven thousand people were captured and killed, and thousands more fled to the northwest. Damn, when the cannon fired, all these seedless ones huddled under the parapet and dared not move. One of the second battalion Even going up, more than 700 people were captured alive."

……

At that time, the Ming army completely controlled both sides of the Huaihe River.

At this time, a gap was dug in the middle of the two earthen walls built by Dorgon, and the imperial chariot, surrounded by the imperial camp, headed towards Muyang City.

"So, it's not Dorgon's main force anymore?" Zhu Linmi looked at Zhang Jiayu and asked.

"Returning to Your Majesty, according to the prisoner's confession, most of them are traitors who helped the captives to abuse and drive away the people of Yangzhou." Zhang Jiayu cupped his hands and said, "A few days ago, Dorgon was assigned to the green camp, changed his clothes, and rushed to guard the two lands. wall.

"The main force of the captives began to leave eight or nine days ago, and the last group of more than [-] people left four days ago. All food, weapons, luggage, etc. were not left behind."

"Dorgon would give up the Huaihe River?" Zhu Linmi was very surprised, "Could it be some kind of trick set up by the captives?"

He never thought at this time that after the defeat of Doduo's 15 army, Jianlu was already a war.

Therefore, although he did not have many troops in Liaodong, Xuzhou, Shanxi and other places, Dorgon did not dare to be careless anywhere, so he could only divide his troops to defend, and the remaining troops could not guarantee to defend the Huaihe River.

In addition, he has just dealt with Hauge, but he has not yet fully controlled his troops, which is a big variable for him to stick to the Huaihe River.

If he suffers another defeat on the front line of the Huaihe River, he will lose even the last bit of his family fortune, and there will be no soldiers to defend from Shandong to Beijing and even Liaodong.The Ming army galloped northward, and at the end of March, a celebration banquet would be held in Shengjing.

So Dorgon weighed it again and again, and decided to retain his strength, return to Beijing to deploy his defenses, and at the same time digest Hauge's Xianglan Banner as soon as possible.So he used a trick to select more than [-] traitors from among those traitors, and distributed some silver taels to let them pretend to be on the Huaihe River.

Zhang Jiayu said: "Your Majesty, according to the prisoner's confession, one of the captives who left first went to the west. The last general thought that when General Li led the Swift Battalion to attack Xuzhou, these people must have intercepted General Li. But there are more than ten thousand people."

Zhu Linmei was even more clueless. If Dorgon sent troops to block Xuzhou, he was supposed to be worried that the Huaihe defense line would be disturbed, but then retreated?
He discussed with Zhang Jiayu for a while, but he was still unable to determine the intention of building captives, so he had to order: "Let Zhao Shichao lead [-] hussars to go north to investigate, and be careful of captives and ambushes!

"The army rests in Muyang for a day. If Zhao Shichao finds nothing unusual, the main force will then go north and take Yizhou first."

After crossing the Huaihe River, attack Yizhou-Yidu-Jinan-Changlu and Zhigu. This was the route of Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition.

Although hundreds of years have passed, the overall landscape of Shandong has not changed much. This is still the most reasonable order of attacking troops, and Zhu Linmi just copied it.

After conquering Zhigu, continue northward to Tongzhou, directly under the city of Beijing!
Zhang Jiayu immediately saluted and said: "Yes! The last general will pass on the order later."

Zhu Linming said again: "Also, contact Li Dingguo as soon as possible, and let him go north as quickly as possible, without seeking to capture the city, as long as he can go deep into the hinterland of Jianlu, he can disrupt Dorgon's deployment. Since Dorgon sent 1 horses to follow him, Then take these people around a few more times.

"Jiang Xiang told him not to be greedy for credit. The Jianlu defenders in Beijing are not something he can deal with. If he is defeated, it will only restore Jianlu's morale.

"Let him head west quickly, meet Wang Yingxiong as soon as possible, and then turn around and eat the fifteen thousand captives who came to deal with him."

Jiang Xiang was originally an old-fashioned warlord, and the rebel army gathered under him was unlikely to have any combat effectiveness. Although he received a lot of military support from the court, Zhu Linmi did not expect them to wrestle with the Jianlu regular army at all.The biggest role this person can play is to attract Dorgon's attention.

"Yes!"

After the imperial chariot drove another way, Zhu Linmi could vaguely hear whimpering all around, and there were soldiers from the imperial battalion yelling in deep voices, "Stay away! This is the holy chariot!"

Zhu Linmi frowned, making people stop, and opened the car door to look out, her heart was shocked immediately!
I saw hungry people in ragged clothes on both sides of the road, most of them were too hungry to stand up, lying on the ground and groaning a few times from time to time.The number of people stretches for more than ten miles.

A corpse can be seen almost not far away, some of which have even exposed their bones, exuding a desperate smell.

Zhu Linming knew that in the early spring, even a month would not be able to turn the corpse into dry bones. Most of these bones were skin and flesh that had been cut off for rations.

On the vast ground all around, a pair of skinny hands like ghost claws, a pair of lifeless eyes, and the wailing of a large number of dying people make this place feel like Abi Hell.

Some people who could still get up heard the word "Holy Driver", and hurriedly struggled to lean over and knelt down on the ground, begging bitterly, "I beg the emperor to have mercy, open a warehouse for relief..."

"Erlang Xiansheng is the real king, saving me is suffering..."

"I beg the emperor to reward you with some rice, my child hasn't eaten for four days..."

"God be merciful..."

(End of this chapter)